The nightmare scenario is a hostile world government, or similar effect of powerful governments—think about the US exporting the war on drugs.
And the even bigger risk of such political singletons would be that they probably aren’t too keen on allowing development of technological singleton needed to pull off the reanimation.
I hate saying this, but the only protective strategies I can see are aimed at general increase of power—make money, develop political competence (this can be a community thing, it doesn’t mean everyone has to get into politics) and learn how to be convincing to normal people.
Agree again. Unfortunately most of the ways I can imagine to attain the necessary power take more financial resources and skills than developing an FAI.
Could you expand on what you mean by a political singularity?
In this context, exactly what you mean by ‘hostile world government’. By ‘singularity’ I refer to anything that can be conceptualised as a single agent that has full control over its environment. For example, a world government would qualify assuming there were no independent colonies (or aliens) within realistic reach of our solar system.
Few entities with absolute power is likely to be inclined to relinquish that power to another entity. Don’t tell big brother that you are going to make him irrelevant!
I came up with the intended meaning but it required context. I think that overarching world government or the like would probably be more clear. This seems like an example of possible overuse of a “singularity” paradigm, or at least fondness for the term.
This seems like an example of possible overuse of a “singularity” paradigm, or at least fondness for the term.
Or a spelling error when referencing a somewhat credible authority. I didn’t use ‘overarching world government’ because it would be clear but convey the wrong meaning.
And the even bigger risk of such political singletons would be that they probably aren’t too keen on allowing development of technological singleton needed to pull off the reanimation.
Agree again. Unfortunately most of the ways I can imagine to attain the necessary power take more financial resources and skills than developing an FAI.
Could you expand on what you mean by a political singularity?
And it’s my impression that merely ordinary amounts of wealth can make a difference to politics if they’re applied to changing minds.
In this context, exactly what you mean by ‘hostile world government’. By ‘singularity’ I refer to anything that can be conceptualised as a single agent that has full control over its environment. For example, a world government would qualify assuming there were no independent colonies (or aliens) within realistic reach of our solar system.
Few entities with absolute power is likely to be inclined to relinquish that power to another entity. Don’t tell big brother that you are going to make him irrelevant!
I find “political singularity” to be very unclear, and I’m curious about whether other LessWrongians came up with the intended meaning.
I was paraphrasing Bostrom from memory, and meant singleton. The relevant section is up to and including the first sentence of ‘2’.
I came up with the intended meaning but it required context. I think that overarching world government or the like would probably be more clear. This seems like an example of possible overuse of a “singularity” paradigm, or at least fondness for the term.
I suspect the intended word was singleton
Which has less overloaded meaning.
That’s the one. Edited.
Or a spelling error when referencing a somewhat credible authority. I didn’t use ‘overarching world government’ because it would be clear but convey the wrong meaning.
Ah ok. This makes a lot of sense. Political singleton makes a lot of sense.